Many aircraft engines, such as turbofan and turboprop engines, require an accurate measurement of Total air temperature (TAT) at the engine intake in order to function properly. However, total air temperature probes are often subjected to in-flight conditions with high concentrations of super cooled water droplets and/or ice crystals. Under these conditions, total air temperatures probes available in the art today have been known to become plugged with ice or a mixture of ice and water which can cause an error in the temperature measurement. It is not uncommon for total air temperature probes that have been plugged in this manner to yield a temperature measurement that is off by 25° C. from the true value. This can cause problems because some engine control systems are dependent on an accurate inlet total temperature measurement. For example, ice plugging of the inlet total air temperature probe can cause the engine control to command the engine to increase or decrease thrust when it is not desired. Moreover, because the purpose of the air temperature probe is to measure the airstream entering the engine, the probe is normally positioned upstream of the engine fan or compressor. Therefore, ice that forms and then detaches from the probe body is highly likely to impact these engine components potentially causing damage to the engine. Finally, for aircraft engines having relatively low air intake velocities, such as turboprop engines, there may be insufficient dynamic air pressure to keep a sufficient airflow moving through the probe to obtain an accurate total air temperature measurements under these conditions.
For these reasons, and other reasons that may be set forth below, there is a need in the art for an icing resistant total temperature probe with integrated ejector.